Last of the Ancient Ones
by Lellida
Summary: Set roughly 67 years after Sign of the Dove in the Dragon Chronicles series. The last of the dragons are hatching...


When I read the Dragon Chronicles, there was a timeline in the back of Sign of the Dove. It said that another clutch was perhaps laid in the land of exile. I took that and turned it into a story. I own the characters Lita and Talgoth, but all else belongs to Susan Fletcher.  
  
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My dear Spens. There is something that I have neglected to tell you. Start of a letter to Spens from his wife, Lyf  
  
Lita stepped through the front door and into the hot morning sun. Shading her eyes, she surveyed the surroundings, her piercing green eyes searching for any hint of movement. But nothing moved today, it was too hot for anything that was a true danger to be about on a day like this. Of course it was probably cooler in the kingdom or the valley, but these wastelands provided very little comfort. Of course Lita never chose to live here. Exile was never meant to be kind or comfortable.  
  
Seeing nothing of any interest, Lita went back inside to begin breakfast. Soon footsteps could be heard upstairs, running to get ready for the day. She smiled inwardly and awaited the arrival that would come any minute. It came soon enough, a browned-haired boy of about 10 years with flecked green eyes. He frowned as Lita said good morning, grabbed a hunk of bread and plopped down at the table. She came over and playfully slapped him on the back. "I see that you are bright and happy this morning." Lita grinned, setting down a bowl of porridges in front of him.  
  
The youth regarded her with annoyance. "I had the dream again." Lita's expression changed to sullen. "Oh, I see." Was all she said. Lately the boy, Talgoth, had been having a dream about three women. Two of them he knew that he had known them before, and the third he had no idea. All three were swirling in a sea of claws, scales, and wings. Dragons. All three looked at him with bright green eyes. All at once they turned to look out in the distance. A sudden wind blew in, howling, bringing more dragons swooping down from the sky. Then each dragon disappeared. Many vanished in a blue light, two vanished in a green light. A few of the younger ones seemed to be swallowed by the brown earth. The rest suddenly burst into bright red flames. It was here that Talgoth usually woke up screaming and couldn't get back to sleep.  
  
He had told Lita about this dream, but even she, the dream interpreter, couldn't make sense of it. Not much about Talgoth made sense to her. He had shown up at her door last year, nearly dead from starvation. She asked him about his past many times, but he said that he had hit his head falling down the river bed, and couldn't remember anything before that. He was in the middle of the wilderness so he had to have been running before that. From what or to what, Lita did not know.  
  
She knew her own story like the back of her hand. She was from the exotic southern kingdom of Sinterio. After recovering from the deadly trishanel fever, the villagers suddenly became very afraid of her. No one had ever survived the fever, no one but her. Why, no one knew. It was rumored that her mother was a witch, because she was seen leaving for the mountains with Lita every night of my sickness. Lita remembered nothing of the illness. All that was left was a trishanel blossom on her cheek. The villagers, convinced that she and her mother had done something evil, drove her and her mother out of town and into the barren wastelands. A week later, a royal messenger arrived with a document proclaimed their banishment. Lita remember that, her mother crying, begging the messenger to let Lita back at least. But all pleadings had failed and he rode off, leaving Lita and her mother to fend for herself. Three years later her mother died, leaving her nothing but a faded letter, and a cloak with a bright red dove woven onto it. The letter she had said, was for Kealdra, Lita wasn't to open it. The cloak was now Lita's, passed down for generation, from the first green-eyed woman of the family, it was said.  
  
A stab at Lita's side brought her back to reality with a yelp. Rubbing her side, she looked over and frowned at the now laughing Talgoth. "That's wasn't funny," she growled. "You were away in your little world again!" he said, laughing. "I didn't want you to disappear!" Lita rolled her eyes. *Why oh why did I take it onto myself to rear a little brat! An Elythian on top of that! Oh well, he's not a Krag and I can be thankful.* The Elythians were fighting a losing battle against the invading Krags. Lita just hoped that no one invaded this country. *Though no one will think to look here anyway* Lita thought with a sad smile.  
  
Her thought were suddenly interrupted by a clap of thunder. Looking up startled, Lita saw that the sky had suddenly changed from the calm blue it had been, to an angry green grey. Just as Lita was about to get up to close the shutters, a loud piercing wail filling the house. It reverberated in Lita's skull, burning like lightning. Clutching her head, Lita fell to the ground with a cry. Then her world turned black. 


End file.
